Goodbye Blog

 I have decided to say goodbye to my blog. I just don’t have the time for it anymore. I am holding back on showing things on Instagram until I have the time to first post it here. I have therefore decided to use Instagram and twitter as my forum instead. I like the faster pace of it and the work limitations. 

So if you still want to follow me you will find me her on Instagram as karensi1 and twitter as @karencrafts. Say hello and I will follow back.

I’ve Been Bad Part 3 (the final....for now)

 

I have been so bad at casting on new projects before finishing others. My Victoria top by West Yorkshire Spinners has been a victim of this. I had to rip out a few repeats of the pattern which put it on hold. Hundreds of stitches to frog in 2ply. I eventually did and I am at the point where I just need to finish the neck and then I can join them together before working on the sleeves. I needed time to be able to concentrate on that since this was only my second garment. So I worked on other things until I could do that and until I ordered a second stitch holder (since ordered and found other stitch holders). My Christmas knitting has put this on the back burner. Even my sister has commented on it and I’ve been told by her that I need to start working on it again after Christmas.

This zipped cardigan is the work in progress which replaced the Victoria. It’s called Franck by Bergere de France and is a delight to knit. I have been doing lots of other things in between and it’s surprising how fast I have been knitting it up. I even spotted a mistake in the pattern. Just a small one but since I am new to garments I am proud of myself. I am on the second sleeve. Next is the collar and then the sewing. I’m not actually dreading the sewing because I am so excited to see it finished. This will be part of my dad’s Christmas present.

My weekends have become dedicated to sock knitting. I’m sure I have mentioned this before. The Loveliest Yarn Company challenged the group to a sock knitting weekend and I have decided to keep it going. It means I can work on bigger projects during the week and still get to knit my beloved socks. For the most part it has been fine even when working. I have managed to knit quite a few pairs as a result. These cat socks though have proven to be a nightmare. Turns out I can only knit them during the day due to the black yarn. I’ve changed the lightbulbs in my lamps to cool in the hopes that it will help as I want them done for my sister. The second problem has been that when I am not working my sister has been spending quite a bit of her time staying with me (I’m her bubble). Today I might get the chance to work on them a little.

So, that has meant that I have been working on other socks. I knitted socks as part of a gift to my line manager since I would be leaving her. Then I was working on Christmas socks for myself and my sister. I thought it would be fun to do our own version of a Christmas Eve box with matching jammies, socks, snacks and wine. I finished the second pair last night.

Sundays became Study Sunday thanks to an idea from Stephen & Penelope’s Instagram account. I wanted practise on my colour work so bought this hat kit. It will also be a gift for my sister. I just need to attach the Pom Pom which I have yet to find the time to do.

I bought this beautiful set of yarn from For the Love of Yarn. Through Lisa’s instagram account I saw that she was making kits for people taking part in a MacMillan Knit a long. A charity that is close to me I signed up and ordered the yarn. The colours are beautiful and the pattern is lovely too. I’ve just not had the chance to cast it on yet. It looks like it will be a quick project so I am hoping to get it started and finished in time for Christmas. Maybe after I have finished my dad’s zipped jacket.

This scarf by Martin Storey has been the biggest victim. I started this at the start of the year as part of my project of trying new things and challenging myself. It took a back seat to my sock knitting due to lockdown. Then to my knitalong cardigan and then all the other projects I have started since. It’s almost finished too. I WILL get it finished.

I’ve Been Bad Part 2.

 

Part 2 of ‘I’ve been bad’ involves baking. I’ve been doing a lot of baking. The above tart is the one that I am most proud of. Remember I am new to pastry. However, I decided to be brave and give it a go. I decided to use Peter’s recipe from GBBO as it was there on the website. Plus it looked delicious. There were a lot of things new to me. Not only making the base but also the delicious (for it was delicious) fruity layers. This is a blackberry and lemon tart. I couldn’t have been more pleased as to how it turned out. If you can’t take my word for it then trust my sister who loved it. I am thinking of making it again for her birthday dessert. I did forgo the caramelised nuts for decorations because I just didn’t want to but I did do the rest. I think that I did need to add more of the gelatine (I used a vegetarian substitute). If anyone can tell me how to accurately work that out I’m all ears. 

I’ve also been baking banana bread (requested by work friends) and soda bread and right now I have just finished baking my peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. You’ve seen all that before though. For bread week on Bake off I chose the steamed rolls. They just looked so good. Again I chose Peter’s recipe of Chicken Katsura rolls. However, I swapped out the chicken and used paneer instead. They don’t look pretty and I’m sure that Paul Holllywood would say they are a mess. But the tasted so good. I even have enough filling in the freezer to make more.

A wee sneak peak of the inside. I haven’t make anything for 80’s week, dessert week or patisserie week. Mainly because I’ve been too busy and I haven’t really been inspired. I have considered the quiche but not enough to do anything about it. Cheesecake is the only thing from dessert week that I would make and I’ve made plenty of those in the past. Pattiserie week it would really be the cubed cakes but I’m not buying moles just to destroy them once I’ve finished with them. Maybe I should try some patisserie I have always wanted to bake. Anyway, looking forward to the final tomorrow and I have some cookies to munch on while I watch. Sadly, I am working and don’t get home on time but thanks to All 4 I will only be 20 minutes behind.

I’ve Been Bad Part 1

 

I have been very bad of late. November I had planned to get in all my Christmas shopping. And actually, I am almost finished on that front. However, I did not plan to buy myself yarn at the end of October. But I did. I’m not even sorry. My bank balance probably is but I’m not. The lovely Lisa of For the Love of Yarn has been VERY busy of late. Go follow her on Instagram and you will see for yourself. With three children and her own business she is always busy but she’s been busy on the creative front. She brought out a new striped yarn base and she is calling it the Glesga Zebra. All of them are beautiful and all of them are linked to famous Glasgow slang. I picked this one because it’s called Ya Belter which is apt for this colour (because it is a belter).

It gave me an excuse to buy this yarn which I have been coveting for so long. The colour inspiration is my favourite soft drink, Irn Bru. If you are Scottish and don’t like Irn Bru there is something wrong with you (I’m including my sister’s BFF in that one). It’s such a vibrant yarn and it fits the drink perfectly. I can’t wait to knit with it. The problem is that both my sister and I will fight over who gets it. So I might have to design a pair of shorties or splash out on a second skein.

My Sea Creatures subscription also arrived and it it a beautiful purple. This is of course by Mothy and the Squid. Her inspiration this month is the Ochre Starfish. Mothy has also been busy of late which you can see from her Instagram (again she usually is busy). Just now she is working towards her own studio. She has signed up to Kickstarter and there are various ways you can help. I’ve signed up for a skein of sock yarn. Please go check it out or check out her Instagram.

Not from one of my friends I’m afraid. I have seen a few people knitting with WYS sock yarn of late and I’ve been a little envious. Sometimes it’s good to have a few of these in your stash for when you want to knit up something simple and effective. Although Christmas is up in the air for most of us at the moment I have one good thing about it. Thanks to my new job I will guarantee to have Christmas and New Year off. New Year I’m not so bothered about but I have always preferred Christmas off. It was my mum’s birthday and it was her favourite holiday. My family struggle at that time of year and I am still a huge fan. I try to make it a good time as I can which isn’t possible if I am working. So this year I will be in a new job and finishing at a reasonable time. We are assuming that we will not be going to my dad’s. So my sister is staying with me. She will be there on Christmas Eve and I have bought us matching pyjamas. I decided also to knit us matching socks and what better than to use Christmas themed yarn. My sister picked it from the name alone which is Candy Cane. I love it.                                     

   This one I didn’t purchase. I talk often about the Flower Power fund which raises money for Marie Curie. I have purchased yarn and patterns which have went towards this. Every so often the lady who runs it holds a raffle with dyers and makers donating items. Anyone who donates a pound to the just giving page is in with a chance of winning. A few weeks ago I had noticed I had a message from the organiser saying that I had won. I was tagged in the announcement post but didn’t see it. I never win these things so I didn’t expect it and winning is besides the point really. However, I feel privileged to have been the winner for this yarn by London House Yarns. The sock set is called Hermione and it is so pretty. I can’t wait to knit it up and I know who I will be knitting the socks for (of course it will be socks). I have never used London House Yarns before so I will be looking forward to that alone.

  Lastly this one is not yarn related. For the last few years or so I buy my sister an advent calendar because it was something my mum always did. My mum always bought us the Cadbury one which has the same thing behind the same doors every year (I know because timehop would show me). For a few years I got her the Loccitaine calendar and I would usually get myself a yarn one. Then I got it for us both and it was fun opening our calendars each day. Took us back to our childhood. Then last year I went for the paperchase as we both love stationary and I thought it would be a fun change. Which it was. There were issue with the delivery though and their courier recently let me down again so as much as I love the store I won’t be ordering from them unless they change their courier. I then saw that Nikki’s Supply Store was doing one and what could be more perfect. It’s still stationary so it is something we can both share and it supports small business. I can’t wait until December 1st.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

GBBO 2020 - Week - I Don’t Know

 

Apologies for not posting in a while. My mood hasn’t been that great. Nothing to worry about. Just stresses from work which is to be expected given the way things are. If you have followed me on twitter or Instagram then you might be aware that I have a new job and I finally have a start date. That job will get me back to doing what I love doing. Concentrating on my patients. I am already counting down my shifts. 

In the meantime, while I have been away from the blog, I have kept busy. I have been knitting and baking on my time off. I have also been reading more. I was sad to be behind in my Bake Off posts though. I have been watching every week and I have been enjoying it. We have had biscuit week, bread week, chocolate week and pastry week. There has been dramas where people haven’t agreed with who is being sent home. And someone is being accused of being an unfair favourite. This seems to happen every year. For me, I have been just enjoying the bakers and the baking. They seem to be a lovely group and they certainly keep you on your toes. They all failed miserably at the easiest of bakes - brownies. Then most of them excel at pastries. We have said goodbye to Mak, Rowan, Sura and Linda. As to who is leading, well there are a few stars but it’s not clear as to who might win.

I have continued to bake along with watching. I made the coconut macaroons from biscuit week. I chose only to do the chocolate ones and I used milk chocolate rather than dark which is just a personal favourite of mine. Sadly, I didn’t enjoy them. They just weren’t for me. Easy to make though.

For bread week I made Mark’s stout and chocolate soda bread. Again easy to make and I was chuffed on how it turned out. Not for me again though. This time I took it in to work and it was quickly devoured with everyone raving about it. Glad it was just me who didn’t like it but I wonder if sweet soda bread just isn’t for me.

Next I went to the Good Food website to bake a plain soda bread. It’s so easy to make. Definitely a good way of getting into baking bread. This time I enjoyed it. I have plans to make it again along with some home made soup at the weekend.

For chocolate week I really only had one choice. That was the week of the ill fated brownie. I’m not a huge fan of brownies anyway. Plus, I wasn’t going to make a three tiered white chocolate cake. So I decided to make the technical option which was the babka. I ended up using a recipe by Martha Collison which sounded very similar to the one on the show. It was actually fun to make. Not only did it turn out but I actually liked it. Would definitely make it again and I recommend the recipe I used. 

I am one recipe behind and that’s pastry. I had to order a few pieces of equipment for that but it’s items I have been meaning to pick up for other recipes (I can justify just about anything). After my three shifts on I plan to attempt a tart. I think that will be a challenging one for me but I’m excited about trying it.

The first image isn’t mine and belongs to GBBO. Most of the recipes you can find from there. If you go to the BBC Good Food app you will find the Irish Soda Bread. Definitely worth a try.

GBBO 2020 - Week 1

 

It’s that time of year again where I every week I watch bake off and actually want to bake. Actually, I didn’t watch it last year. I eventually came off my high horse of never watching it again since it moved channel. I got over that but last year I was just too busy and I never did get the chance to catch up with it as planned. This year though I will watch it and I am in the mood to bake along.

I was a little sad to see Sandy leave as a cohost but Matt Lucas has proven to be fun and I’m looking forward to watching him and Noel. I see he has already caused with his opening but I thought it was funny. The contestants themselves seem like a nice bunch and I am looking forward to getting to know them as the show progresses. Warning, if you haven’t seen this episode I suggest you don’t read any further.

The first week was cake week and the signature dish is battenberg. Didn’t realise how controversial a battenberg is. Most people love it or hate it. I’m afraid I myself am not a fan as I hate marzipan. My gran used to buy a battenberg to bring over for a cup of tea. I could tolerate it as the marzipan was so thin I could peel it off and the cake would just taste like cake. With the bakers versions though the marzipan looked so thick for most that peeling wouldn’t work. It was interesting though to see all the different flavours. The one above is by baker Dave and is probably the one that appealed to me most as it is a chocolate espresso martini. Seeing this I wish I liked it. I am pretty sure that this isn’t the first time this cake made an appearance on bake off. Wasn’t it a technical dish at some point?

The technical was a classic. Pineapple upside down cake. This was one of my mum’s specialities after her scones and her Christmas cake and dumpling. However, she didn’t make it like this. There was no caramel or whipped cream. Plus it was one cake and not lots of individual cakes. She also substituted the cherry for jam as she hated cherries. Still, it was an interesting take on the classic and I think most of the bakers seemed to struggle with it. Poor Dave though. His went flying through the air after poor Sura tried to swat away a fly and didn’t see Dave coming up behind her. I felt so sorry for her. If you fancy trying this recipe you will find it on the GBBO website. It’s a Paul recipe in case you were wondering.

Lastly was the show stopper and the bakers had to make a sculpture of someone they admired made mostly from cake. In other words they couldn’t cheat by using mainly rice crispy treats as a base (guess who has watched cake wars). This was hilarious. Some of the most disturbing sculptures were seen that day. The winner of the week was Peter who kind of cheated since he sculpted Chris hoy in his cycling helmet and glasses. You have to admire him for that though. Plus, all of his bakes turned out well so I think it was well deserved. It did make me wonder who I would choose to sculpt. I would struggle I think as some of the people I admire I think it would be seen as poor taste. However, I did think that Stephen King would be a good one since I think he would have a sense of humour about it.

Sadly the first contestant to go was Loriea. She wasn’t the only one to have a bad week to be honest so I think it must have been a difficult decision. I did honestly think that she has scraped a pass (despite using bubblegum flavouring but that’s just my personal taste). She doesn’t appear to be on twitter but you can follow her and see her bakes on Instagram under Loriea_cc.

As always with GBBO, none of these images belong to me but do belong to Channel 4 and the GBBO franchise.

So I had a go at my mum’s recipe. My dad had sent it to me along with her scone recipe many moons ago. I should have used a small tin and I should have added the cherries after it came out the oven (perhaps with jam as per my mum). However, it actually turned out well. It tasted just like my mum’s and the sponge was light. I will definitely make this again. I decided not to make the GBBO version because I didn’t have the little tins and I wanted to use my mum’s recipe. I’m pleased with the result. 

Happy Birthday To Me!

 

So my birthday was a month ago now and some of these purchases are not as a result of my birthday. But any excuse to buy yourself yarn goodies or show off your yarn goodies, right? So first up is the most recent goodies from the Sea Creatures club by Mothy & the Squid. This one is based on The Southern Blue Devil Fish. How beautiful is this? I love the deep blues and it matches the fish perfectly. I am also in love with the little coaster that came with it. Will definitely be using it.

So here is what I did treat myself to for my birthday. So, a friend of my sister asked what I had bought myself for my birthday. I hadn’t thought about it to be honest. I asked if paying my NMC fees (that’s right £120 to be allowed to do my job) counted. Apparently not. As luck would have it The Loveliest Yarn Company then posted that they would receive more copies of 52 Weeks of Socks published by Laine magazine and we could pre-order. I have been considering purchasing this book since it was first out for pre-order. As I had a lot of sock knitting books and was starting to design my own I held out. This is such a beautiful book though. Above all of my sock knitting books. It’s a solid hardback book with lovely binding. A book for the coffee table (if you like coffee table books). There are so many beautiful patterns in there. I know a few people are challenging themselves to knit them all. I might do the same but I am thinking that I will hold off until the new year. Something for me to look forward to. Now the question is do I start at pattern 1 or do I randomly choose what appeals to me?

Another book that has been on my radar is Cat Knits by Marna Gilligan. It’s the hat that I liked immediately and I thought my sister would love it. So I added this to my birthday shopping. It is another lovely book (not a coffee table book). Definitely only for the cat fans among you. There are quite a few patterns in there that I would knit. Plus my sister has already earmarked which ones she would like. I’m surprised she hasn’t done what she does when I get a new cookbook. Which is place a post it to ensure I know what she wants. I’m looking forward to it.

I saw this zipped cardigan in an issue of The Knitter and I really wanted to knit it for my dad. He has something similar (bought) which he wears all the time and I thought it would be nice that I knitted one. I know he had a jumper from my mum that he wore to death. Since I knitted my own cardigan he has been hinting (I say hinting, there was no real hint to it) that I knit him a 2ply colourwork vest. Keep in mind I am a beginner with large garments. My mum always refused to knit him this so I was quite happy also refusing his request. However, I thought this would be perfect. I ordered the yarn direct from Bergere de France. It’s actually fairly reasonable and it comes in lots of lovely colours. I have to admit that I had to reign in my excitement at the colours and remember who I was knitting for. I think my dad would have preferred a much darker grey. I decided to go with the lighter though as it suits him and I still need to knit it. I’m pleased to say that it is already on the pins and is knitting up well so far.

Lastly, I bought a hat kit from Toft. This is for my sister for her Christmas/birthday (haven’t decided which yet). I finally caught up with all the Fruity Knitting episodes and really liked the interview with Toft. The podcasters daughter had also knit this very hat as a way of practising her colourwork skills. I thought that would be perfect so picked out colours that I thought my sister would like. I love that the kit comes in a drawstring bag and the pattern is downloadable (which I have still to do). I think I will cast this on for #StudySunday.